Shama Patel dreamed up the facial bar concept Clean Your Dirty Face as a solution to a real estate problem.
The ex-attorney was searching for properties in downtown Chicago to expand her 2-year-old fitness business, Air Aerial Fitness, and was interested in making its square footage as profitable as possible. She recalls, “I thought, ‘Well, what can I open up that speaks to the same health and wellness consumer, but isn’t competitive with this boutique fitness business?’”
As a former acne sufferer who valued consistency in her skincare routine, Patel decided a destination for 30-minute express facials might make sense. She explains, “I wanted to bring facials out of the spa, eliminate the overhead and put the client in front of a licensed aesthetician that could give them basic skincare advice. That was not readily available back then.”
Clean Your Dirty Face debuted on the ground floor of Air Aerial Fitness in 2015 at a downtown Chicago pop-up location. When the pop-up’s 3-month lease expired, Patel opened a permanent brick-and-mortar location nearby. The two companies shared three locations before Patel stepped back from the fitness business in 2017 to concentrate on Clean Your Dirty Face full-time.
Today, the facial bar company is in growth mode as it expands its physical footprint in the United States. By 2019, Clean Your Dirty Face had seven standalone locations in Illinois, Colorado and North Carolina. Following a temporary pause of store openings in 2020, nine standalone locations bowed from 2021 to last month. Five more are expected to open by the end of the year.
In total, Clean Your Dirty Face has sixteen locations spanning nine states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina and Texas. With an understanding of franchising from her history with Air Aerial Fitness, Patel determined early on that Clean Your Dirty Face would expand via franchise, too. Over 90% of Clean Your Dirty Face’s existing locations are franchises. “I started Air with an SBA loan. Once that was paid off, I figured I could either raise capital or go the franchising route,” says Patel. “I really wanted to stay capital-light.”
Clean Your Dirty Face debuted as express beauty service companies were proliferating. Influenced by Drybar’s 2010 launch, Skin Laundry, FaceGym and Heyday entered the market between 2013 and 2016. Glow Bar and franchise format Face Foundrie debuted in 2019. At Clean Your Dirty Face, Patel says, “We perform the most volume of facials than anyone across the board. So, even if another company has 14 locations, for example, I can guarantee you we’re doing double the volume they are.”
Each Clean Your Dirty Face location does about 300 facials a week, and a quarter of a million people have visited its locations annually. Patel describes the company’s service cadence as “extremely fast-paced.” Its 30-minute facial was devised as a pared-back, yet results-driven experience to inspire customers to form healthy skincare habits. Three aestheticians are on staff at a location, and there’s around two minutes between every appointment. The average size for a location is 1,200 square feet.
“Thirty minutes is the perfect time frame for a client to fit into their day and be able to do it consistently throughout the year,” says Patel. “And with skincare, it’s all about results. If you’re not going to show your client results, they’re not coming back. Results come through consistency and routine, and you make something routine by making it approachable and affordable.”
The base-level service price is $50, and it features steaming, deep cleaning, exfoliating, masking, toning and moisturizing. Customers can purchase add-on services like extractions, microdermabrasions, blemish treatments and eye soaks for an extra $10. Peels, neck massages and LED laser treatments are an extra $20. No other services are offered.
Customers complete a short form when they arrive and are then divided into three facial types depending their responses: anti-aging, brightening or acne-prone. Aestheticians ask routine- and lifestyle-related questions during the facial to learn about customers and where they are in their skincare journeys.
The experience is heavy on skincare education since 50% of customers who walk through Clean Your Dirty Face’s doors haven’t had a facial before. “We take training very seriously at our stores. It’s probably the No. 1 thing we focus on,” says Patel. “Our aestheticians need to be able to take that wealth of knowledge they have and deliver it to the layperson.”
Customers can sign up for a $99 per-month membership that encompasses unlimited facials and extractions or packages starting at $135 for three facials. About a third of Clean Your Dirty Face customers sign up for a return service after their initial visit, says Patel.
Facial services aren’t Clean Your Dirty Face’s only revenue stream. After opening its first location, Patel began developing products with aestheticians on staff. She says, “That was great because we were able to get real feedback quickly from both the aestheticians as well as from customers.”
Clean Your Dirty Face’s skincare line currently has 22 stockkeeping units such as cleansers, creams, toners, serums, oils, scrubs and masks. Products retail from $40 to $75 for single products and over $100 for sets. Flash Facial, $72, is the bestselling product, per Patel. The line is sold exclusively on the company’s website and in its locations. It’s the only line used in its facial services.
In 2015, the skincare line accounted for 5% of Clean Your Dirty Face’s business. This year, it’s approaching 50% of the business, and Patel theorizes that percentage will soon increase to 60% to 70%. “Our clients get on average 25 facials per year. That’s still 340 days where they need product for an at-home routine,” she says. “That’s a huge opportunity for our product to make its way into our clients’ daily routine.”
Opening a Clean Your Dirty Face franchise location costs between $125,000 and $200,000, including an upfront $50,000 franchising fee. Ongoing fees include a 5% royalty fee and 1% advertising fee calculated as a percentage of gross sales. Franchisees must have a net worth of at least $300,000 plus $100,000 in liquid assets to be considered.
It’s been a learning curve to identify the right entrepreneurs to run Clean Your Dirty Face franchise locations. Its eight-person corporate team helps maintain brand standards throughout the franchise fleet. “Your first group of franchisees are much different than the second group,” says Patel. “In the beginning, we had those individual small business owners. Now, it’s really changed. They’re more sophisticated. We have people who are coming out of corporate America with management and people skills.”
Clean Your Dirty Face hasn’t partnered with a franchise broker. “All of our franchisees find us through word of mouth. We have no strategic partners. We have no investments. This is all organic,” says Patel. “I want the businesses to be profitable. I would rather show our franchisees how to keep their expenses low.”
Patel is confident that Clean Your Dirty Face will eventually hit 100 locations, but she isn’t fixated on a specific timeline to get there. There are 2023 product releases on tap for Clean Your Dirty Face’s branded skincare, and it may reach broader distribution soon. “That’s something that I’m interested in exploring now,” says Patel. “Being down to one corporate store, we finally have more bandwidth to be able to focus on those things.”
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